


seven

by xx_anklebiters_xx



Series: folklore [1]
Category: Bandom, Paramore
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25523263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xx_anklebiters_xx/pseuds/xx_anklebiters_xx
Summary: based on the song seven, from taylor swift's newest album: folklore
Relationships: Chad Gilbert/Hayley Williams, Hayley Williams/Taylor York
Series: folklore [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849144
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	seven

“Thank you so much,” I say. I grab the warm cup of coffee and hurry off. As I walk my eyes wander. Each breath of mine takes in new and pushes out old. I feel at home and familiar in the faintest sense.

I see a shop that, to me, looks as though it were illuminated by a thousand lights. It’s clear to me why: the candy store. I spent so much time picking out a candy every single time. I never ate any of it, no; I gave it all away. It sparked a feeling I’ve never forgotten about.

_“Hey,” I said, completely out of breath. I plopped down a big bag of candy. “I brought licorice. The red one.”_

_A smile peeled the sad away. She grinned so hard I could see the tooth that’d gone missing. The one she got a quarter for. The one I took that quarter for._

_She took the bag and yanked it open, but frowned at me. “There’s a quarter in here.”_

_“Uh-huh!”_

_“But I gave you a quarter for the candy,” she pouted._

_“Well, licorice doesn’t cost a quarter. Plus, I wanted to give you a present. So maybe you can save your quarter for somethin’ else,” I explained._

_“Oh,” she mumbled. “You sure you don’t want it anyway?”_

_I nodded and took a piece of licorice from the bag. “Can you get wet today?” I pointed at the rope toward the little lake._

_“Maybe,” she said. “But maybe not. Maybe I shouldn’t track so much mud home. My mom has to clean that, you know?”_

_“But it’s just mud,” I argued. “That’s not bad.”_

_“Well I know,” she sighed. “But whenever I go home she’s already done mopping and if she doesn’t finish in time my dad gets really mad.”_

_“He’s always mad,” I pointed out._

_“I know.”_

_I convinced her somehow that we should do it anyway. She agreed. Time felt endless swinging on that rope. I didn’t make it into the lake because I was too scared to let go. She always did._

_But we went to her house immediately after, so we could track the mud before her mom mopped. She made me stuff the licorice in my shirt._

_“Hayley, please don’t dirty any towels,” her mom pleaded when we ran in and began to climb the stairs._

_She didn’t slow down, but yelled out, “Okay!” and we bounded into her room._

_She moved to her dresser and stopped with her hands on the knobs of a drawer. “Turn around,” she requested.”_

_“Why?”_

_Hayley sighed. “Because I have to get naked and boys aren’t s’posed ta see girls naked.” So I listened to her and sat with my legs crossed, eyes closed, forehead pressed against the wall. I stayed that way for what felt like just a few seconds before she tapped on my shoulder and asked, “Wanna play pirates?”_

_And pirates was my favorite game of ours, so I was always eager to play it. We laughed and giggled forever and just as I was walking the plank off of her bed, her door slowly crept open. It creaked as it revealed the empty hallway and we gasped. We both then ran out into the hallway of her home. I looked down the stairs and she peeked down the other doorways._

_“We’re under attack!” I yelled out. “They’re ghost pirates!”_

_We ran around from the “ghost pirates” (which I’m still convinced were actual ghosts) until her mom said my mom had called and asked me to be returned before dinner._

_Of course, it was nearing my seven-year-old, 8:30 pm bedtime that night when the phone rang. “Hello?” my mom answered. And then she got worried. “Sweetie, are you okay? Oh- okay. I’ll put him on.” She turned to me. “Hayley’s on the line.”_

_I ran to the phone. “Hayley?”_

_I heard a sniffle and she whined out, “I’m in the closet.”_

_”You got the cord to stretch all the way up to your room?” I was confused. I thought about the paper with my phone number glued to the wall of her closet._

_“No, the coat closet. They’re really loud. My dad is really, really mad,” she whispered._

_“Oh. How long has he been mad?” I wondered._

_“Well, my mom was gonna make dinner but then she didn’t know the stove was broken and it was too late for the fix-it man to come, so when my dad got home he got mad because she didn’t make dinner. So since he got home,” she explained._

_“You didn’t eat dinner?”_

_She mumbled, “No, I think they forgot about me.”_

_I thought long and hard for a second. “Wanna have a sleepover? I can beg my mom real hard!”_

_“Umm… maybe they won’t let me,” she said quietly, thoughtfully._

_“I’ll make her call them, please?” I begged._

_She agreed and when she hung up I heard the closet door creak open followed a loud click that signaled the line going dead. I quickly explained the situation to my mom and she explained that going and getting her simply wasn’t appropriate. I begged harder, I told her Hayley hadn’t eaten. She agreed._

_As we walked up to the door, she instructed me quietly, “Don’t say anything, okay? Just let me talk. Even if what you hear isn’t the truth, okay?”_

_“Okay.”_

_They took a long time to open the door when the bell rang. Unfortunately, it was her dad. My mom began to lie, “I’m so sorry for just popping over, but Taylor’s been asking me all day if Hayley could sleep over? I meant to call but I just got so busy, you know?”_

_Her dad eyed me, I looked away. “Hayley!” he yelled. And the sad little girl crept out of the coat closet just to the left of the door. She looked embarrassed to be found out. Her dad looked embarrassed to have not known where his child was. “What were you doing in there, silly?”_

_“Um…” she stalled, “I was hiding from the ghost pirates.”_

_“Okay. Do you want to have a sleepover with Taylor?” he asked, his eyes on my mom._

_“Can I?” Her big eyes pleaded._

_“Go pack a bag, kid,” he told her. She grabbed my hand and we ran upstairs while our parents discussed details._

_“You know,” I said, “If you pack all your dolls you could live with me forever. And then we could play pirates all the time.”_

_“Yeah?” She mumbled._

_“Uh-huh. We could_ be _pirates and sail away to India. We could get married and have 30 kids, too!” I grinned._

_“That’s a lot of kids,” she commented. “How come you want so many?”_

_I flopped down on her bed. “So we can make sure we pass all our love to them all forever and ever. But maybe first you should eat dinner. My mom’s gonna make us mac and cheese!”_

And as detailed as my memory is, I can hardly make out her face. Even then, I wouldn’t know even what her face looked like now. It’s been over a decade since we’ve last seen each other. Admittedly, me coming all the way here in hopes that I’d find some trace of her seemed far fetched. Then, I see the shell of an old arcade. It’s definitely closed but in more of a plastic tape and cones kind of way. But it’s familiar enough.

_“Come on, just one game. You’re just mad because I always kick your ass. You suck at Street Fighter!” Hayley jested. I roll my eyes._

_“Well yeah, I do. But aren’t you sad that I’m moving away? Aren’t you gonna miss me?” I questioned._

_“Duh,” she told me, “But if we spend your last night here crying about you leaving, we’ll be sad forever.”_

_“Can we at least spend it somewhere where we aren’t surrounded by other people?” I beg._

_And so we walk all the way back to my house and we climb up into the treehouse we abandoned shortly after we both stopped playing with all of our toys. We hadn’t been up there in almost two years._

_“Hey,” she said softly, “Do you still wanna marry me? And have 30 kids?”_

_“I wanna marry you and have no more than 10 kids so that you don’t die. But of course. Always.” I smiled at her and she inched closer to me._

_I was surprised when she pressed her lips to mine. After, she leaned back and laced her fingers with mine. She gave me a goofy smile and said, “I love you to the moon.”_

_To which I responded, “I love you to Saturn.”_

_She rolled her eyes. “I love you to the moon and back and then to Saturn and back and_ don’t _you try to outdo me. You can’t.”_

_And I remember writing back and forth for a year. I remember her telling me about some boy who had a crush on her. She said he was stupid and rude; she would never have eyes for any other pirate. I remember her telling me some older kids broke our rope. I asked if her dad could fix it. She said he wouldn’t but that it didn’t matter because she wouldn’t use it without me. I remember her telling me she got asked out on a date. Shortly after, the responses became scarce and stopped. I even got a letter returned._

The feelings flood back into me. They squeeze my heart; they remind me of many failed dates and numb relationships. I close my eyes for a second and I walk. That proves to be a mistake when I run into the leg of a table belonging to a cafe I pass. I trip and my coffee flies. I’m honestly just relieved to have avoided spilling it on anyone. I am, however, embarrassed and on the ground.

“Hey, are you alright?” A voice asks. I push myself up and my eyes spill into her green ones.

“Y-yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Of course, I’m fine. Everything is alright,” I blabber.

She laughs. “Well, in that case, I’m glad. Would’ve been a shame if that face got scratched, huh?”

“Huh?” I wonder. “Oh! Yeah, haha!”

“So,” she says, dragging the syllable out. “Is it a stretch to offer to buy you another coffee to get your name? Forgive me if I sound crazy, but you just look like someone to me.”

She feels familiar to me, too, so I feel bad for being so clueless. “Well, I’ll tell you my name, but I’m not too opposed to getting coffee. I’m Taylor.” I smile.

Her eyes light up. She points to herself and says, “Taylor, I’m Hayley.”

“Hayley,” I breathe. And I don’t mean to, but I say, “You look so beautiful.”

She giggles. “Thank you. Thank you so much. Can I ask what brings you to town?”

“Well,” I say, “You. I haven’t quite collected enough quarters for a pirate ship yet, but I have my mom’s engagement ring in my pocket and some crazy ideas. And a letter that never made it to the recipient.”

Hayley smiles at me with a nod. “So, you wanna go back to my place? I was just in downtown to pick up some licorice. The red kind.”

I agree and we head back to her place. On the mantle in her living room, there’s a wooden board. I move closer to it. Our initials are carved into it, I recognize it instantly.

“You have a piece of the treehouse,” I note.

“Yeah!” she calls from her kitchen, where she can be heard starting the coffee pot. “The couple you guys sold your house to had it torn down almost immediately. They didn’t think it was safe for their future children. I had to beg them to let me saw out that piece first.”

I smile. “And it meant so much that you kept it on your mantle 14 years later?”

“Don’t laugh,” she starts, “But when we were 13, I knew I loved you. I wanted to marry you. I was so sad that you moved. And then my mom finally left my dad and she and I moved. In the move, I lost some of the letters you wrote. And I only had one envelope with your address on it and I couldn’t find it, you know. And I guess if you sent me a letter after I moved, my dad had it sent back. Honestly, I was 19 when I found out that he had those letters. He chose to hide some of our stuff when we left to be spiteful. Losing touch with you was one big mess.”

“That’s crazy. I’m glad you guys got away from him. Do you talk to him now? And may I ask how your little relationship with that boy went?” I question.

She shakes her head, a smirk on her face. “Hardly. And if you must know: that boy really just wanted to make out. Like all the time. I never felt at home with him or anyone else.”

“Than with me,” I say. “Would it be insane for me to ask if you still wanted to marry me and have no more than 10 kids?”

“Would it be insane for me to say that I still love you to the moon and Saturn?”

We both laugh for a second. I know she’s recalling her own argument. When the laughter subsides, I turn serious.

“Hayley, I truly do want to marry you,” I inform her. I pull the ring out of my pocket. “I have every intention to.”

“How long are you staying?” she asks.

“Nine days, not including today,” I calculate.

She walks to the plank on the mantle and touches it softly. “Well, Taylor. I won’t say yes now, just in case. But I wanna spend time with you, and I want you to ask me again in nine days, not including today.”

Nine days later, in front of her mom, she says yes. I cry so hard that she engulfs me in a hug and we sway back and forth for a while.

“You’re home, now,” she says. “And I can’t believe you haven’t changed a bit since we were seven.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you guys so much for reading this far! this is my favorite song off of the album and writing this brought me so much joy and so many inexplicable tears. i hope y'all liked it and i will be adding more stories to this series based off of these songs because i found myself VERY inspired.  
> love always,  
> me!


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